The unfolding human-made climate crisis seems almost surrealistic from a scientific perspective. As knowledge of a climate emergency improves, policies change in ways that exacerbate rather than mitigate the situation. The tragedy is that actions needed to stabilise climate, rather than being painful to society, would have multiple benefits, including stronger economies, more good jobs, and more equitable opportunities for individuals.

If our governments continue to fail to advance effective policy, thus causing continued extraction of every fossil fuel that can be found, today’s children, future generations, and nature will bear the consequences through no fault of their own.

A variety of options for making governments do their job were discussed.

Speaker: Dr James Hansen, former director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), Adjunct Professor of Earth Sciences at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, and designated by Time Magazine, in 2006, as one of the world’s 100 most influential people

Chair: Professor Sam Fankhauser

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All photos: credit Maria Moore

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